Seoul AW 2026: AI Robots Collide

Hyundai’s MobED rolled into AW 2026 with a dare.

The Smart Factory & Automation World event in Seoul, set for March 4–6 at Coex, is shaping up as a crossroads for AI-native production systems. Hyundai Motor Group’s Robotics Lab is bringing its MobED—Mobile Eccentric Droid—to the floor, a four-wheeled platform whose independently steered wheels and eccentric mechanism are pitched to handle the uneven and obstacle-strewn terrain of real factories and busy warehouses. Unveiled in December 2025, MobED has already snagged a Best of Innovation Award in the robotics category at CES 2026, a nod that Hyundai argues mirrors the model’s readiness for deployment rather than a showroom tease. The AW showcase places MobED among a broader cadre of robotics and AI tools racing to move from demonstrations to deployments in automation lines, material handling, and last-mile logistics.

AW 2026 is presenting more than a single star turn. The event’s organizers describe it as a barometer for the industry’s shift toward AI-native production—where sensing, decision-making, and actuation increasingly live on a single, connected fabric rather than as isolated add-ons. Hyundai isn’t the only signal; the show will feature a cohort of humanoid developers from China, marking the first time a “China Humanoid: First Journey to Korea” conference track runs concurrent with AW 2026. The participating firms—AGIBOT, Fourier, Huawei, Leju, and Unitree—are expected to outline commercial pathways for humanoids across industrial, service, and pilot deployments. The event frames Korea as a critical hub in the global humanoid robotics dialogue and competition, a trend observers say will intensify vendor ecosystems and on-floor pilots in the months ahead.

Two distinct trajectories converge here: a mobility-first robot platform that can be paired with grippers, sensors, and software to tackle dynamic shop floors, and a wave of humanoid developers angling to prove that arms, hands, and even walking bipedal motion can meaningfully contribute to repetitive, precision, or inspection tasks once reserved for humans. Production data from the type of deployments these players aspire to isn’t yet widely disclosed publicly, but the cadence is clear: buyers want to see pilots that translate into measurable gains, not glossy demos. The MobED narrative—navigating cluttered aisles, crossing thresholds, and adapting to varied floor textures—speaks to a practical constraint in modern plants: mobility matters as much as payload and speed, and the real value comes when a mobile unit can converge with fixed automation in a single workflow.

For plant managers and automation leads, the implications are concrete even before a formal ROI memo lands. Integration remains the bottleneck: floor space, power infrastructure, and training hours are no longer afterthoughts but core design constraints. The AW 2026 chatter makes it clear that the last mile of deployment is where many promising pilots stall. While Hyund ai’s MobED emphasizes autonomous mobility, the Chinese humanoid players plan to showcase more agent-like capabilities that could, in principle, share tasks with traditional cobots and fixed robots. The result, industry observers say, will be a portfolio of options rather than a single “plug-and-play” solution; the most successful deployments will be those that marry mobility with human-robot collaboration, governed by careful change management and grounded timelines.

Looking ahead, analysts expect a sharper focus on the integration stack: how to choreograph tasks between a moving platform, stationary automation, and human workers, and how to validate reliability, maintenance needs, and total cost of ownership in real factory environments. The event’s broader arc—a convergence of AI-native production, mobile robotics, and humanoid platforms—offers a testbed with real deployment pressure, not merely marketing gloss. For executives, the lesson is not just “these robots exist” but “these platforms can be integrated, scaled, and supported on a schedule that aligns with capital plans.” The coming weeks will reveal whether AW 2026’s promises translate into repeatable payback and sustained operational gains, or if the last mile remains the true battlefield.

Sources

Hyundai to show MobED at AW as robotics, AI expand in manufacturing

Automation World in Seoul to feature Chinese humanoid makers